New Readings in Arabic Historiography from Late Medieval Egypt and Syria

New Readings in Arabic Historiography from Late Medieval Egypt and Syria
Author: Jo van Steenbergen
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 521
Release: 2021-04-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004458905

The present volume contributes to research on historic Arabic texts from late medieval Egypt and Syria. Departing from dominant understandings of these texts through the prisms of authenticity and “literarization,” it engages with questions of textual constructedness and authorial agency. It consists of 13 contributions by a new generation of scholars in three parts. Each part represents a different aspect of their new readings of particular texts. Part one looks at concrete instances of textual interdependencies, part two at the creativity of authorial agencies, and part three at the relationship between texts and social practice. New Readings thus participates in the revaluation of late medieval Arabic historiography as a critical field of inquiry. Contributors: Rasmus Bech Olsen, Víctor de Castro León, Mohammad Gharaibeh, Kenneth A. Goudie, Christian Mauder, Evan Metzger, Zacharie Mochtari de Pierrepont, Clément Onimus, Tarek Sabraa, Iria Santás de Arcos, Gowaart Van Den Bossche, Koby Yosef.

Medieval Arabic Historiography

Medieval Arabic Historiography
Author: Konrad Hirschler
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2006-09-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 1134175957

Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION -- chapter 2 HISTORICAL AND HISTORIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND -- chapter 3 SOCIAL CONTEXTS -- chapter 4 INTELLECTUAL CONTEXTS -- chapter 5 TEXTUAL AGENCY I: Titles, final sections and historicization -- chapter 6 TEXTUAL AGENCY II: Micro-arrangement, motifs and political thought -- chapter 7 RECEPTION AFTER THE SEVENTH/THIRTEENTH CENTURY -- chapter 8 CONCLUSION.

Literary Spectacles of Sultanship

Literary Spectacles of Sultanship
Author: Gowaart Van Den Bossche
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2023-09-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3110753022

The so-called Mamluk sultans who ruled Egypt and Syria between the late thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries AD have often been portrayed as lacking in legitimacy due to their background as slave soldiers. Sultanic biographies written by chancery officials in the early period of the sultanate have been read as part of an effort of these sultans to legitimise their position on the throne. This book reconsiders the main corpus of six such biographies written by the historians Ibn ʿAbd al-Ẓāhir (d. 1293) and his nephew Shāfiʿ ibn ʿAlī (d. 1330) and argues that these were in fact far more complex texts. An understanding of their discourses of legitimisation needs to be embedded within a broader understanding of the multi-directional discourses operating across the texts. The study proposes to interpret these texts as "spectacles", in which authors emplotted the reign of a sultan in thoroughly literary and rhetorical fashion, making especially extensive use of textual forms prevalent in the chancery. In doing so the authors reimagined the format of the biography as a performative vehicle for displaying their literary credentials and helping them negotiate positions in the chancery and the wider courtly orbit.

Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests

Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2021-12-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004500642

Late Antique Responses to the Arab Conquests is a showcase of new discoveries in an exciting and rapidly developing field: the study of the transition from Late Antiquity to Early Islam. The Arab conquests are shown to have changed both the Arabian conquerors and the conquered.

A History of Diplomacy, Spatiality, and Islamic Ideals

A History of Diplomacy, Spatiality, and Islamic Ideals
Author: Malika Dekkiche
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2024-08-22
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1040090095

Inspired by the “spatial turn,” this volume links for the first time the study of diplomacy and spatiality in the premodern Islamicate world to understand practices and meanings ascribed to territory and realms. Debates on the nature of the sovereign state as a territorially defined political entity are closely linked to discussions of “modernity” and to the development of the field of international relations. While scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds have long questioned the existence of such a concept as a “territorial state,” rarely have they ventured outside the European context. A closer look at the premodern Islamicate world, however, shows that “space” and “territoriality” highly mattered in the conception of interstate contacts and in the conduct and evolution of diplomacy. This volume addresses these issues over the longue durée (thirteenth to nineteenth centuries) and from various approaches and sources, including letters, chancery manuals, notarial records, travelogues, chronicles, and fatwas. The contributors also explore the various diplomatic practices and understandings of spatiality that were present throughout the Islamicate world, from Al-Andalus to the Ottoman realms. The book will be of interest to students and researchers in a range of disciplines, including international relations, diplomatic history, and Islamic studies.

Mamluk Descendants

Mamluk Descendants
Author: Anna Kollatz
Publisher: V&R Unipress
Total Pages: 613
Release: 2022-08-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 3847014587

Research on the Mamluk period has so far remained relatively silent about the Mamluk descendants, who are often referred to by the Arabic term awlād al-nās (roughly: children of the elite). After Ulrich Haarmann's fundamental theses, research on this group seems to have paused, in comparison to the study dedicated to other social groups of Mamluk society. This volume brings together the results of an international conference and presents the state of the art in approaching the Mamluk descendants, whose emic perception as a group and social roles were far more differentiated and variable than previously assumed. The contributions shed light on the status of the Mamluk descendants from a variety of viewpoints, including historiographies, archival material, and artifacts produced by Mamluk descendants.

History and Society during the Mamluk Period (1250–1517)

History and Society during the Mamluk Period (1250–1517)
Author: Bethany J. Walker
Publisher: V&R Unipress
Total Pages: 575
Release: 2021-04-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 3847011502

This volume is a collection of research essays submitted by fellows of the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg, an Advanced Center of Research in Mamluk Studies. It covers three themes, which correspond to the research agenda of the final three academic years of the Annemarie Schimmel Kolleg. These were: environmental history, material culture studies, and im/mobility. The aim of the contributions is to overcome the disciplinary boundaries of the field and to engage in scholarly debates in Ottoman Studies, European history, archae-ology and art history, and even the natural sciences.

Teachers and Students, Reflections on Learning in Near and Middle Eastern Cultures

Teachers and Students, Reflections on Learning in Near and Middle Eastern Cultures
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 861
Release: 2024-01-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9004682503

Teachers and Students: Reflections on Learning in Near and Middle Eastern Cultures. Collected Studies in Honour of Sebastian Günther contains essays on the developments, ideals, and practices of teaching and learning in the Islamicate world, past and present. The authors address topics that reflect – and thus honour – Sebastian Günther’s academic achievements in this particular area. The volume offers fresh insights into key issues related to education and human development, including their shared characteristics as well as their influence on and interdependence with cultures of the Islamicate world, especially in the classical period of Islam (9th-15th century CE). The diverse spectrum of topics covered in the book, as well as the wide range of innovative interdisciplinary approaches and research tools employed, pay tribute to Sebastian Günther’s research focus on Islamic education and ethics, through which he has inspired many of his students, colleagues, and friends.

Arabic Textual Sources for the Crusades

Arabic Textual Sources for the Crusades
Author: Alexander Mallett
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 285
Release: 2024-03-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004690123

Building upon previous volumes by the same editor, this book contains studies of nine of the most important writers of Arabic-language textual sources for the Crusades and the Frankish presence in the eastern Mediterranean in the period 1097-1291.

Qur’an Commentary and the Biblical Turn

Qur’an Commentary and the Biblical Turn
Author: Samuel Ross
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2024-02-19
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 3110669641

The Qur’an and the Bible have been called "intertwined scriptures" due to the Qur’an’s frequent invocation of biblical narratives and figures. But what is the history of Muslims’ exegetical engagement with the biblical text? Through a comprehensive survey of more than 170 Qur’an commentaries, Samuel Ross traces the longitudinal history of the Bible in tafsῑr. Offering detailed case studies and rich in historical context, Ross’s narrative culminates in the remarkable late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century biblical turn. Global in scope, this development has not only generated new Muslim views of the Bible but even new interpretations of the Qur’an itself. This monograph has been awarded the annual BRAIS – De Gruyter Prize in the Study of Islam and the Muslim World.